About Meg Cranston

Conceptual artist Meg Cranston creates sculptures and installations with an air of whimsy that often belies the symbolism and deeper implications of the ideas she explores. Her works frequently seem lighthearted—for The Complete Works of Jane Austen (1991), she filled a large weather balloon with all the air necessary to read Austen’s entire oeuvre out loud—while other pieces carry more serious references. Magical Death (2007), a display of piñatas fashioned to look like Cranston herself, fused a comical conceit with an implied portrayal of the artist as martyr—to be bashed with sticks as the piñatas would be. Other installation pieces evoke similarly personal themes: for Keep Same Over (1989) she displayed all of her personal belongings in a gallery space, while for One of Each (1990) she exhibited 150 doll figures, catalogued in an inscrutable checklist.